Tag: calm

Returning To a Life of Much Simpler Things.

I attended an event once many years ago. The host had traveled here from India, hoping to share a deeper engagement of spirit.

“My goodness, you look so tired,” he began. “Too tired to attend to such trivial matters.”

I had to laugh, as he smiled to me. How effortlessly he had addressed the malady of our busyness.

Each of us is guilty of our own demise. We over obligate, taking on far too much – including these greater issues if our world. Political unrest, poverty and injustice – each demanding the fullness of our attention. It’s recklessness, really-to shift focus from the needs of our own heart.

The phone rings, and we are instantly swayed. Who could it be, and what do they need? Has this would become so decidedly transaction-based?

I remember a time not so long ago when the new day carried comfort, not dread. Yet, here we are – enslaved by a mobile ring.

“Take all things that would propose to be important,” L.M. Browning writes, “and weigh then upon the scale of your soul.” In the end, we alone define its merit and worth.

“Discard all that is trivially masquerading,” she shares. And return to a life filled with much simpler things.

In peace, my dear friends…

Namaste ❣️

The Calm Within Our Storm.

I watched a compelling video this weekend; group of scientists were conducting an experiment to determine the power of mind over the perception of circumstance.

In one room, participants donned a virtual reality headset as they sat upon a specially constructed movable sled. The video played was that of an extreme roller coaster ride, emulating a high speed chase through bends and twists.

Thoughled movements were slight, still the participants screamed; their minds unable to distinguish the suggestion from true reality. Their hypotheses, if proven, would demonstrate an unexpected effect: that of the minds role in anticipating events.

Call it dread, fear – or, more simply expectation; we cannot deny having at one point felt the same. The experience has yet to unfold, yet the sense is as sharp, nonetheless. In fact, we spend so much time locked in this anticipatory phase that we risk losing our connection to the ‘absolute present’. Is this perhaps the source of our unsettledness? A malady born of habitual reaction.

Even when offered insight into the experiment, participants maintained the same neurophysiological response – reacting in advance of each twist and turn.
Though, in the second phase of the experiment there was only one minor shift – participants were asked to focus on their breathing. To consciously slow where they felt a quickening; to allow the breath to serve as their ‘solid ground’.

With just this change alone, the results were visible and astonishing. In instances where participants had previously tensed, they were ultimately observed leaning in. Measurements indicated a marked release of physical tension.

Is it possible that these habits of mind might be so easily redefined? Retained to hold the essence of calm over any suggestion of fear.

There’s truly so much we cannot possibly know; including the manner and mechanism of our mind’s inner workings and the ever-present calm within our storm.

A little something to consider, my friends…

Namaste ❣️